Khaled Reyadh Hamad

Continue Production Films

July 20, 2014, in Gaza, Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territory

Hamad, a Palestinian cameraman, was killed in the Gaza City neighborhood of Shijaiyah, according to news reports and the journalist's colleague. More than 60 Palestinians and 13 Israeli soldiers were killed in clashes between Israeli and Hamas forces in Shijaiyah that day, according to news reports.

Hamad was working on a film for the local Continue Production Films about the dangers Palestinian medics face while working in Gaza, the company's owner, Alaa Alool, told CPJ. Hamad was accompanying an ambulance in Shijaiyah when the vehicle was hit by a shell fired by Israeli forces, Alool said. A second shell hit, killing the journalist and Fouad Jaber, a Palestinian medic, Alool said.

At the time of the shelling, Alool was at an ambulance station when he heard over the radio that Hamad had been hit. Alool said he waited at a local hospital for four hours until he received confirmation that Hamad had been killed. News reports said that the violence in Shijaiyah was so intense and the number of casualties so high that ambulances were unable to transport the wounded.

Graphic pictures on social media showed Hamad in the hospital, wearing a flak jacket clearly marked as press, with his camera resting on his body.

The Israel Defense Forces did not immediately respond to CPJ'srequestfor comment on Hamad's death. But IDF spokesman Lt. Col Peter Lerner said on a July 22 press conference in response to CPJ's question about the recent death and injury of journalists and media workers in Gaza that "we do not target journalists [...] but journalists do sometimes put themselves in risky positions." He continued, "We have to do our best to facilitate and keep them out of harm's way."

Hamad was married in April 2014. His wife was expecting a child at the time of his death, according to posts on his wife's Facebook page.